Fitness is fun

Shake out those leotards, it's time to fight the flab!
Found at Schadenfreudian Therapy where there's a download link for the whole, fun-packed, sphincter-clenching LP.


But just in case you're not convinced, let's listen to the intro track...

Celebrating pedal-powered gas canisters

I'm going for the "no comment" option. Click the image to enlarge

Concrete evidence.....

....of what was seen as cutting edge in UK architecture the year I was born. Yours too for that matter.....probably. The complete archives of Concrete Quarterly from 1947 available for download here in pdf format

Further confessions of a font addict....

A couple of links for the similarly afflicted

Create a font using your own handwriting....assuming you have a printer and scanner available. Download the template, print it, fill in the characters you want to create, scan and upload...and a couple of minutes later your font is available to download and install....very nice....oh, and did I mention it's free?

Link to YourFonts

Now, how about using a bit less ink? Download and install this free font, use it as your default, and save on your printing bills. Added bonus, you're doing your bit for the planet!

"After Dutch holey cheese, there is now a Dutch font with holes as well"
Ecofont

Mind the gap

In brief, the tragic consequences of promiscuously holding hands with a dubious gent in first class after a night 'on the toon'....I'm sure there's a lesson to be learned there, so ladies consider yourselves warned! From the front cover of the Illustrated Police News, Saturday September 9th 1871.

Health and Fitness

Muscle Building

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Other Illustrations vintage

Found it!....."Muscle Building" by Mr Liederman (see post for Friday Jan 30th)....read at your peril!

Teetering......

Another one of those "physics games", balance the given bits on the pole....it only went to prove that I've got not one iota!

Play Perfect Balance

Going down!

Explore the oceans with Google Earth. Just launched (sorry!) a couple of days ago. You can...

• Dive beneath the surface and visit the deepest part of the ocean, the Mariana Trench
• Explore the ocean with top marine experts including National Geographic and BBC
• Learn about ocean observations, climate change, and endangered species
• Discover new places including surf, dive, and travel hot spots and shipwrecks

You'll need to download Google Earth v5 from here, but then forget the snorkel and flippers!

Play time....

Easy on the eye point-and-clickery
Play Treasure Box

Clever stuff

Get educated at Academic Earth

Looking up

A couple of free downloads for looking at the night sky.....if the clouds clear!

"Stellarium is a free open source planetarium for your computer. It shows a realistic sky in 3D, just like what you see with the naked eye, binoculars or a telescope. It is being used in planetarium projectors. Just set your coordinates and go."

Download page

"The free space simulation that lets you explore our universe in three dimensions. Celestia runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X"

Celestia homepage

Documentaries online

Watch lots online here

Niche market listening

The History of the Common Cold Unit

34 interviews conducted between 1994 and 1997 by Dr David Tyrrell, recording the memories of those that worked at The Common Cold Unit at Salisbury from 1957 until its closure in 1990

....warned you it was niche listening!

Link

Cute stuff

.....just because it's time

Surfs up....

Took the long way round home after doing a bit of weekend shopping in Whitley Bay.....good thing I had a couple of heavy bags as ballast or I'd have been blown along to the lighthouse. Worth the temporary pain though!

PS...picture of the progress on the Spanish City dome on the blipfoto journal

Online Etch-a-Sketch

I never was much good at it, maybe you can do better!

Online Etch-a-Sketch

A message for the 7 stone weakling

I was searching for vintage advertising images to use on a poster today when I came across this gem at Google Books (part of their Popular Mechanics archive).... though to be honest I was spoilt for choice, Mr Liederman seems to have invested in multiple full page spreads in every issue during the 20's at least.....it was a close call between this one or one of him sporting a leopard skin off'the-shoulder leotard and strange sandals. Click on the image to read his fantastic over-the-top sales pitch.

Upmarket shopping trip

Here we have Sarah doing a bit of quality shopping at Tynemouth Station Market this afternoon. But by 2.00pm some of the stallholders were already starting to pack up for the day. The weather, the time of year....or the recession, who knows? But I got some bargains, an old necklace (with a metal chain that will probably give me a flare-up of excema on the back of my neck...but hey it was only a pound), a WD & HO Wills cigarette card album for £4 ("The Sea-Shore", 1938, a complete set authentically speckled with age...or nicotine!) and a truly ugly vase (I was sorry for the stallholder, he looked half frozen)

Spin the black circle

Looks hard....as you can see from the screen grab I didn't try for long, maybe tonight!

Play Spin the Black Circle

Lots to look at

The National Film Board of Canada has launched a video archive.... "From entertaining shorts and cartoons, to deeply moving or disturbing documentaries - they're all there for free, with more being added every week."

Link to the "Explore all films" page

New addiction.....

I signed up for a free Photo Journal at blipfoto.com last week.....very simple rules, you can only upload one photo a day and, most importantly, it has to be taken that day. I've managed 6 consecutive entries so far (gasp!) so I thought I'd post a link to keep me on track.

Meanwhile, at the coast..

Zen audio loops

Create your own blend of soothing zen audio loops to work to......very relaxing.
Zendesk FM3 Buddha Machine Wall

Curved horizon

I took the (slightly) longer, scenic way round to the newsagents this morning....this view out to sea overlooking the Table Rocks. Is it my imagination or can you see the curvature of the earth in this shot? (Guaranteed no jiggerypokery/photoshopery....the camera is permanently set to "Auto" because I know no better!)

The Star Wars trilogy in less than 4 minutes....

Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

....and she does a pretty good job!

Build a squid

Saturday morning, and a perfect opportunity for some quality timewasting.....

Build your very own animated squid....... just because you can.

Another search-for-and-play-music thingy

I'm quite impressed with this one: type either a song title or artist in the search box, click the button and voila, it just works

Try Fizy

Sumo Paint

My steam-driven kitchen table laptop doesn't cut the mustard when it comes to running high-end graphics editing programmes like PhotoShop, I've been using the free to download package PhotoFiltre for all my day-to-day basic cropping and editing needs for ages (and to be honest, most of the time it does everything I want) But sometimes I want just that little bit more. Enter Sumo Paint, a free online image editor that packs a substantial punch and runs in your browser.....I think I'm a convert!

Link to SumoPaint 

The Sky at Night

Just been watching a daytime, probably repeat, episode of "The Sky at Night" (it's Saturday, I was washing dishes at the same time, and anyway I'm allowed, OK?), hadn't realised there was a programme archive here

Bottle tops

Beer cap matching game (age restrictions apply....not)

Play Beer Caps

Give the Stays to Grandmother

One of many surreal illustrations included in "A Picture Book for Little Children" (published circa 1812) available for download from the Internet Archive....or view the flipbook online here

Don't look down!

Truly scary Japanese suspension bridge.

From RGB to a picture

Click here for a clever Flash animation illustrating how those old cathode ray tubes worked. (Stand well back for the full effect!)

Doorstep view

The sky at 8.00am this morning when I was letting the cat out and bringing the milk in.....nice!

Spot the differences

Spot the differences on the mirrored image to advance to the next screen, click wrong and you get docked points. Nice graphics....slightly irritating soundtrack, but you can switch it off.

Play Mad World Differences

A few bread recipes

Granny Whites Bread Recipes

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Do-it-yourself Nutrition easy recipes

Nashville Mersey Beat

Oh Yeah! (Nashville grown) cover versions of all your favourite 60's hits....and yes, there's Volume 1 too. Click over to TOBALDOLANG'S HOUSE OF MUSIC and download some truly dreadful sounds....there's faux brit accents worse than Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins on offer!

Just a sample for your listening pleasure

A Passion for Poladroid

And no, that's not a typo!

Even though Polaroid is now no more you can still experience the joy (and the wait/anticipation while your picture develops in front of your very eyes) of taking a snap old-style by trying out Poladroid....a free download from the authors website, there's versions for Mac and Windows. (5.35mb download)

Here's a Quayside view through a slightly world-weary lens.....

Fire up the printer

Nice paper critters to print and make at 3EyedBear

Spanish City rides that maybe didn't make it

From The Times, Saturday July 26th, 1913 (click the image to enlarge)....The Rainbow Wheel sounds like fun, wonder whether it ever made it through the courts?

Loops of Zen

"Restore harmony by clicking the tiles until no open end is left over"

Play Loops of Zen

Soap

I'm not sure why, but I find this vintage soap advert the stuff of nightmares....my floors, kitchen tables, linoleum and oilcloths can stay dirty thank you very much (no change there then!)

The Away Day That Wasn't

...we were supposed to be off to Edinburgh but the train was cancelled....

...so anyway, a swift change of plan, a meal on the Quayside as a consolation prize (Pizza Express, who sadly didn't live up to their name) On the way there I took a few pictures.....

A blot on the landscape. (that'll be the rusty bucket, not The Sage!)

A Modern Gargoyle ....or an Urban Gorilla?

Underneath the Arches

And here's where you can find the last 2....

Vintage seed......

....now I happen to know that a certain family member has little stickers peppering a copy of this years seed catalogue and is just itching to slap in his first order.....but there's loads of vintage imagery here that he could fill in a bit of time with while the frost lasts.

Find the last 10 gnomes

Episode 12:the tank here

And all the rest here

Bye bye little guys!

Notebook

A very clever animation.....

A small kitchen-related disaster averted

I had a moment of panic at the weekend, couldn't find my trusty BeRo recipe book when I had a sudden fancy for making some biscuits. But then I found that all the old favourites are online here.....I'm still looking for that sticky, greasy, dog-eared paper version though!

Newcastle Science Fest 2009

Advance notice of the upcoming Newcastle Science Fest (website not yet open for business but there's details of how you sign up to be emailed with more information sometime in February)

One event that IS being advertised is the first ever UK Maker Faire on the 14-15th March (more details here).

"Maker Faire seeks to inspire, inform, connect and entertain thousands of Makers and aspiring Makers of all ages and backgrounds through the public gathering of tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, students, authors and commercial exhibitors."

Pump up the volume

Does what it says on the tin......

vloud

Timewasting

Can't help you with any rules....I don't think there are any. It's a sort of pointandclicky thing.
Play BrownDyedHotel

Best wishes for a....